There are numerous commercially available programs called “browsers” that facilitate accessing and displaying data. The two leading commercially available browsers are the “Netscape Communicator” which is distributed by Netscape Corporation of Mountain View, Calif. and the “Internet Explorer” browser that is distributed by Microsoft corporation of Redmond, Wash.
Browsers allow one to utilize the internet to access web pages located at remote sites. A browser displays web pages in a window on a display device. The web pages that are displayed can contain both text and images.
Technology called stegangraphy had been developed which allows one to store digital data in an image. Such data is frequently termed a “digital watermark”. The digital data is not visible when an image containing such data is displayed with a conventional browser; however, the image can be passed through a special program which can detect and read the hidden data. Systems for storing digital data in images and for then reading such data from the images are for example shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,636,292 and in U.S. Pat. No. 5,748,783. Such technology is also discussed in the “Communications of the ACM” published July 1998 Vol. 41. No. 7 pages 31 to 77.
The following disclosure describes programs that work with a browser to provide functions that are not performed by prior programs. A typical web page displayed by a browser contains several images. With a conventional browser, a user can not visually determine if any of the images displayed on a web page contain a watermark, and cannot create and use image bookmarks.
One method described in this disclosure is a method of managing content, and in particular, managing content on the Internet. The method retrieves a web page that includes an image and detects whether the image included within the web page is embedded with a digital watermark. It generates an indicia associated with an image included in the web page that is embedded with a digital watermark. The indicia indicate to the user which images include watermarks. The watermarks may be used to convey links to related web pages or specific information about the images, such as usage rights and licensing information. Variations of this method create image bookmarks to web pages including images using thumbnails of those images.
Another aspect of the disclosure is a system for managing content. The system comprises a first program for retrieving web pages including images. It also includes a second program for extracting an image from a web page, creating a thumbnail of the image, and forming an image bookmark linking the thumbnail to the web page that the image has been extracted from. The thumbnails are used to create a visual index to corresponding web pages from which the images originated on the Internet, for example.
Another aspect of the disclosure is a method of visual indexing of content on a network, such as the Internet. The method retrieves a web page, extracts an image included on the web page, generates a thumbnail of the image, and creates a link between the thumbnail and a location of the web page from which the image has been extracted.
One embodiment is implemented as an adjunct to a convention browser which displays web pages including images. In this embodiment, visual indicia is placed on images that include a digital watermark so that a user can know that the image contains hidden watermark data. By clicking on the indicia which is placed on the image, the user will be linked to the web page identified by the watermark data hidden in the image. In this embodiment, such a link can be established without the web page designer having to include a tag in the web page which displays the original image. This embodiment also opens a separate window depicting a thumbnail of each image in a web page. If a user right clicks on one of the thumbnails in this window the image will be added to a list of images in a special image bookmark file. When a user opens the bookmark web page, thumbnails of all the stored images in the bookmark file are displayed. A user can recall the web page which originally contained the image by clicking on the thumbnail.
Another aspect of the disclosure is a system comprising: a memory; and a processor in communication with the memory and programmed to retrieve an image signal. The processor is programmed to compute identifying information from the image signal, and to associate the identifying information with a link to additional information related to the image signal. The processor is also programmed to create a thumbnail of the image signal, and programmed to form an image bookmark linking the thumbnail to a network location where the image signal is stored.
Yet another aspect of the disclosure is a method comprising: retrieving an image signal; using a programmed processor, computing identifying information from the image signal; associating the identifying information with a link to additional information related to the image signal; creating a thumbnail of the image signal; forming an image bookmark linking the thumbnail to a network location where the image signal is stored.